C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KYIV 004187
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2016
TAGS: PGOVPRELUP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: PM YANUKOVYCH ON COOPERATION OR
CONFRONTATION, REQUEST FOR A "NEW START"
REF: KIEV 3463
Classified By: Ambassador, reason 1.4 (b,d)
¶1. (C) Summary. Ambassador met with a confident PM Viktor
Yanukovych Nov. 2 to discuss Yanukovych's planned trip to
Washington in December and the current domestic political
situation. Yanukovych centered the conversation around two
options going forward vis-a-vis President Yushchenko -
cooperation or confrontation. He preferred a partnership
with Yushchenko, but warned the window was closing, with
confrontation in the offing as "radicals" in Regions pushed
for action. Yanukovych portrayed himself as a man of
principle who had been embarrassed by Kuchma, deserved a new
start, and could be trusted to foster good relations with the
U.S. In response to the Ambassador's suggestion that
Yanukovych take steps on WTO, the NATO information campaign,
anti-corruption, VAT refunds, and wheat exports, Yanukovych
replied that movement WTO was underway, but that his team
would take action according to its own schedule. He brushed
off DPM Tabachnyk's recent anti-American article in a Russian
newspaper, claiming Tabachnyk was distracted by a young wife
and may have not even read the article before cosigning. End
Summary.
Upcoming trip and possible positive steps
-----------------------------------------
¶2. (C) PM Yanukovych hosted Ambassador for a one-on-one
working lunch November 2. Yanukovych was clearly focused on
the domestic situation (below) rather than his upcoming trip
to Washington planned for early December. Ambassador raised
the positive steps the USG like to see Yanukovych's
government take in the near term: WTO legislation; NATO
information campaign; anti-corruption efforts; VAT refunds;
an end to wheat export restrictions.
¶3. (C) Yanukovych replied that he appreciated our advice, and
the U.S. would see actions on WTO; however, "we" would take
action according to "our own schedule." He had made
statements on the WTO and would stick to the timeline.
However, such actions would not be pushed through; there was
a need to convince people on the merits.
Personal pitch: man of principle deserving a new start
--------------------------------------------- ---------
¶4. (C) Yanukovych was at pains to convey the sense that he
was a man of principle who could be trusted to deliver on his
word. From the very beginning of his life, starting as an
orphan without a family, he had struggled to succeed, set a
pattern of working hard in office as Donetsk governor -- all
a very different background than Yushchenko's. On
his/Regions first stint in power (2002-04), he stated: "we
know our past and do not deny it, but now we must start from
scratch and put the past behind."
¶5. (C) Yanukovych said he understood U.S. policy towards
Kuchma; he claimed he personally had been embarrassed by
Kuchma, but could not change him, and wanted to be seen
separately from Kuchma. "Our views" had changed since 2004.
Stating that he "harbored no grudge" towards the U.S. for
having supported Yushchenko in the Presidential elections, he
suggested that now a new history could be written with the
U.S. He would be a good partner, fulfilling promises made.
Ambassador noted that Washington had read his early October
op-ed in the Washington Post and would indeed expect that he
would follow-up.
¶6. (C) Note: Yanukovych's effort to burnish his reputation
using personal anecdotes from his deprived childhood and
brushes with the law followed closely in line with journalist
Yuliya Mostova,s psychological portrait of Yanukovych
provided to visiting A/S Fried in early September (reftel).
On this occasion, Yanukovych shared two new anecdotes about
his family being harassed by people "in black shirts and
guns" which he claimed were police. The first (undated)
involved his son. Someone had killed "a peasant," the corpse
then thrown in front of his son,s car in an attempt to
implicate him. His son swerved and did not hit the corpse
but had been so unnerved that he fled temporarily to Russia.
The second involved his wife, in 2005 when he was out of the
country at a Czech spa. She was sitting in their courtyard,
stroking their cat on her lap, when armed black-clad
personnel burst in and allegedly hit her with the gun butt.
His bodyguards, bigger than the intruders, appeared and ran
them off. Yanukovych's intent in sharing these two stories
was not entirely clear.
Relations w/ Yushchenko: Cooperation preferred...
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¶7. (C) Yanukovych claimed he personally had sympathy for
Yushchenko and hoped that they could find a way to cooperate,
"but Yushchenko must change." Yanukovych's Regions team had
skills to make government work that Yushchenko lacked.
Yushchenko had a vision, but he was lazy; "if he worked for
me, I would fire him." A partnership and a broad coalition
made sense; they had a shared vision, but different
electorates. Yushchenko competed with Tymoshenko and the
nationalists, Regions with the Communists, Socialists, and
Vitrenko.
¶8. (C) Yanukovych claimed that Regions wanted a strong
President and would not push Yushchenko around if he worked
in partnership. Yushchenko worried about losing his
electorate if he struck a deal with Regions, but Tymoshenko
would "bury him" he chose the other path. Yanukovych
complained that Yushchenko was not seeing him regularly; they
needed to meet more often, be seen shaking hands and speaking
out together. There was still time to make a partnership
work, but the window was closing; Yanukovych suggested
resolution had to come by the end of the month. He asked
Ambassador to help engage Yushchenko on partnership, claiming
Yushchenko "owes the Americans his job." Ambassador replied
that was nonsense.
...but ready for Confrontation
------------------------------
¶9. (C) Yanukovych said the alternative to cooperation was
clear. Yushchenko was gradually losing his representatives
in the Cabinet; he suggested that could eventually include
the MFA, MOD and the SBU chief (note: all Presidential
appointees under the constitution). Yushchenko was creating
friction by suspending CabMin resolutions and appealing them
to the Court; this was increasing the radicalism in Regions,
Rada faction. "I'm not a radical; I'm trying to keep those
radicals down." Those radicals, along with some Our Ukraine
and Tymoshenko bloc MPs, he claimed, had come to him the
night previously (Nov. 1) regarding removal of Interior
Minister Lutsenko. He thought he had dissuaded them, but
they had initiated action in the Rada earlier that morning
while he was meeting with the Kazakh Ambassador (note:
Regions MPs voted unanimously in support of a motion by
deputy Regions leader and firebrand Kushnaryev to investigate
Lutsenko and recommend a two-month temporary suspension).
¶10. (C) Yanukovych noted that he had said several times he
would not run for President. That would change, however, if
Yushchenko forced through a Constitutional Court decision to
overturn political reform which had devolved Presidential
powers to the Premier, Cabinet, and Rada majority. Such a
move, he warned, would end with Yushchenko leaving office
early, either through early elections or impeachment. The
overturn of political reform would not benefit Yushchenko
anyway, claimed Yanukovych, since he was a one-term
President. The only beneficiaries would be either Tymoshenko
or himself. He noted that new elections could also mean a
higher threshold - seven or nine percent - turning Ukraine
into a two-party system (Regions and BYuT).
Tabachnyk - distracted by a young, new wife?
--------------------------------------------
¶11. (C) Ambassador noted that Yanukovych's entire team was
not on line with a shared vision of foreign policy and
cooperation with the U.S., citing the recent article in the
Russian newspaper "Rossiskiye Vesti" cosigned by DPM
Tabachnyk and the paper's Ukrainian bureau chief. Yanukovych
suggested that Tabachnyk may have cosigned the article
without even reading it; Tabachnyk, according to Yanukovych,
was currently in the Maldives with his new 22 year-old wife,
not focusing on anything "but her."
¶12. (U) Visit Embassy Kyiv's classified website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev.
Taylor

Also notice that Embassy of Kyiv old web-address with the old name in it has been closed down: www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev